3. Do the words in the left column end with a hard <c> or with a soft <c>? hard<c> Do the words in the right column end with a hard <c> or with a soft <c>? soft <c> Why are the <c>’s in the right column soft <c>’s? Because they have an <e> following them . Why are the <c>’s in the left column hard <c>’s? Because they do not have <e>, <i>, or <y> following them .

4. One of the jobs of silent final <e> is to mark a <c> right before it as soft. In the words in the right column the final <e>’s are all marking <c>’s as being soft. But in two of the words in the right column the final <e> is also marking the preceding vowel as being long. Those two words are: price and twice .

6. So far you've seen two different jobs that final <e> can do: Final <e> can mark a preceding vowel as being long . Final <e> can mark a preceding <c> as being soft . And sometimes a final <e> can do both things at once.

Watch the Middles!

agriculture

BASE

BASE

SUFFIX

agri

cult

ure

agri

cult

ure

agri

cult

ure

agri

cult

ure

agriculture

democratic

BASE

BASE

SUFFIX

demo

crat

ic

demo

crat

ic

demo

crat

ic

demo

crat

ic

democratic

emergency

PREFIX

BASE

SUFFIX

e

merge

ency

e

merge

ency

e

merge

ency

e

merge

ency

emergency

election

PREFIX

BASE

SUFFIX

e

lect

ion

e

lect

ion

e

lect

ion

e

lect

ion

election

Teaching Notes. For more on the use of silent final <e> to mark soft <c>, see AES, p.146.